Down to Business

We’ve all been in meetings with people don’t feel the need to take notes. At first, you might be astonished by that person’s intelligence—what a champion of both long- and short-term memory! These feelings tend to diminish when, two days later, that person can’t remember what his or her assignment was or anything else that came up during the meeting.(more…)

According to J. Gregory Dees, a leading expert in the area of social entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurs adopt a mission to create and sustain social value by drawing upon appropriate thinking in both the business and nonprofit worlds and by operating in a variety of organizations: large and small; new and old; religious and secular; nonprofit, for-profit and hybrid. Regardless of the organizational form chosen, social enterprises use earned revenues to pursue a triple bottom line positive impact on people, profits and planet. (more…)

When it comes to entrepreneurism, Kansas City has a lot to celebrate. In fact, KCSourceLink recently released a report detailing all the great things that are happening with our local “ecosystem.” (You can read that report here at the new www.wecreatekc.com website.)

If you’re an entrepreneur, a nonprofit professional who works with entrepreneurs or an employee of a large corporation, you should embrace the notion of Kansas City becoming America’s most entrepreneurial city—and know why we can stake the claim.

After all, we cannot deny that we have the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the U.S. Small Business Administration regional and district offices, KCSourceLink, USSourceLink and a network of more than 150 organizations serving numerous stages of entrepreneurs.

Kansas City has received recent national accolades, too:

No. 1 High Tech City by PC Magazine

No. 3 Best City for High Tech Startup Growth by Kauffman Foundation

No. 4 Best City for Young Entrepreneurs by Under 30 CEO

No. 6 U.S. Travel Destination by Lonely Planet

No. 11 Most Charitable City by Charity Navigator

No. 12 City for Business Development by National League of Cities

No. 13 Best City for Female Entrepreneurs by Forbes

No. 15 of America’s 50 Best Cities by Business Week

And Google Fiber has made us the first region to receive gigabit internet.

So what are our gaps? Confidence? Success stories? Attention from the coasts?

A lack of capital has been one of the most common complaints about our entrepreneurial scene, but help is out there. According to Pulse of the Prairie, conducted by Silicon Prairie News:

56 percent of the region’s entrepreneurs find startup funding through friends and family or their personal network

26 percent find startup funding through mentors

26 percent find startup funding through a formalized accelerator or incubator program

Businesses with fewer than five employees also can access small-dollar loans through microlenders. These loans range from $5,000 to $50,000. The Justine Petersen organization is leading the way in this area with close to $2.5 million in loans in the Kansas City region. This is a good option for small businesses that have been turned down the bank; they can often receive loans at 8 to 13 percent interest.

Government funding is available for select industries through the federal SBIR program. The Missouri Technology Corporation and Kansas Bioscience Authority can both help with this type of funding.

Equity capital is available in our market through a number of formal angel investment groups such as the Mid-America Angels and Women’s Capital Connection. Entrepreneurs must understand equity capital in contrast to debt capital to be successful in receiving these funds. There are also informal networks of individuals that are somewhat private in their angel investments. These are not as readily accessible.

There is much to report about Kansas City’s up-and-coming companies and innovations. Be a part of this movement to make Kansas City America’s most entrepreneurial city. You can participate through wecreatekc.com.

Why hasn’t your business formed its own strategic advisory board? For a lot of entrepreneurs, the excuse is time! “Excuse” may be a harsh term, because there are some challenges in “making the time.” We are so busy working in the minutia of our business on a day-to-day basis that having any time to sit, breathe and think is just a stressor. It can be lonely to be the top dog making all the decisions—and hoping those decisions are the right decisions. (more…)

As small business owners, we are constantly bombarded with lending options through advertising, articles, emails and people we meet at just about every event we attend. It can be a daunting, time-consuming process to assess what products might be advantageous to our business.(more…)